Right of the bat with the best Samson ever, you know you are in for a treat. Scarlet fire also have numerous flights of inspiration. you know the ones that turn people onto the dead. When you hear something and it makes you happy.

helluva show. Grateful to everyone that made it possible for us to listen to this in 2018.

Jesus Christ, this band! This Scarlet Begonias is wonderful! I have a serious love/hate relationship with the GD. They can be too slow, too country, etc. but I would sit through 100 "Me and My Uncles" and "One More Saturday Nights" for this Scarlet. I got tingling all up and down my back and the backs of my arms - physical euphoria, just sitting in my basement in front of the computer. Yeah GD!

Tale of 2 sets.

The band comes out on stage and launches into the opener. The sound system blows out. Everybody looks around for a bit and they wander off back stage. Roadies everywhere. 15 minutes later we're ready for some music. Not sure what was being consumed backstage, but it was powerful. As I remember it, Jerry didn't sing and Keith was resting his head on the keyboard for a bit. Crowd becomes restless. Guy next to me (he was tripping hard) says: "this is the weirdest show I've ever seen...". I'd pay good money to get a tape of the first set just to hear it again.

A lot of this show is real hot, but there's not much of it...I don't know.

Keith is absolutely pounding his Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano during this performance! The CP-70 was one of the first electric 'keyboards' (it was actually more like a Fender Rhodes that produced a grand sound as it still had piano strings and hammer keys), and Keith gets some pretty sweet tones out of it.

Keith is really driving the music this evening, getting Jerry to jam on and on during Scarlet>Fire. You can hear him throw out musical ideas during the solos, and the rest of the band actually picks up on them and starts exploring! This is totally uncommon for Keith's playing during the majority of his Dead career; he normally plays a supporting role with the occasional background flourish. Not this night. Keith is balls-out and ready to jam. He is pushing and pulling the band into different directions and variations. This is pure gold. Keith is the reason why we got a massive 16+ minute Fire. His energy just balloons Garcia into the psychosphere and he starts wailing out more Mutron III solos.

As for the recording, the sound quality of this matrix is superior to the Dick's Picks which is now out of print and price gouged on eBay. Listen to this instead.

So go out and buy the DP (cause you'll need it), but I'm sure glad that this is available.

What a set! Played with feeling, unlike much that had been the previous year ('77= soulless and clinical).
Every song is the tops, but some are higher then others> S/F & TOO. It's all just so damn good. You'll need that DP for Truckin' though.

This is an excellent show - everyone seems to firing on all cylinders. Keith is on fire during the other one. Weir barely slips in a "Circles" during the second chorus!

That is what the Scarlet>Fire transition jam gave me.

Sound Quality: 5
Show Quality: 5

That is all.